Throughout the two-year Film Studies course you will study your chosen films in relation to the following core study areas:

Area 1: The key elements of film form: cinematography, mise en scene, editing, sound and performance Area 2: Meaning and response- how film functions as both a medium of representation and as an aesthetic medium Area 3: The contexts of film: social, cultural, political, historical and institutional including production

Throughout the course, the emphasis will be on the interaction of film and spectator. You will study the following micro features of film: • Cinematography • Mise-en-scène • Performance • Editing • Sound

You should develop an awareness of your active role as spectators in working with the way the micro features of film construct meanings and contribute to the sensory impact of film. You will develop your analytical and creative skills, reflecting your growing understanding and appreciation of the micro features of film and the ways in which these can be deployed in order to create meaning and produce response. Genre is a French word meaning ‘type’ and film genres have existed since the early days of cinema. However, while the use of genre has a long history in film, it has a far longer general history which dates back to Ancient Greece, at which time Aristotle categorised theatre plays by type. Nowadays most cultural production, be it television, magazines, music, painting or literature, ends up being assigned to one genre or another. In all cases what makes a genre possible is the existence of common elements across a range of productions. In other words, it is the identification of repetition across a series of productions that results in them being described as a particular type.

If we take several films from a particular genre we would expect to see similarities in a number of different areas. We can call these genre characteristics. These are built upon audience expectations about: *Visual imagery *Plot *Character/ Stars *Setting *Music *Narrative development Film Genres are various forms or identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films that are recurring and have similar, familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns, filmic techniques or conventions - that include one or more of the following: settings (and props), content and subject matter, themes, period, plot, central narrative events, motifs, styles, structures, situations, recurring icons (e.g., six-guns and ten- gallon hats in Westerns), stock characters (or characterizations), and stars. The Main Genres are action/adventure, comedy, drama, epics, horror, musicals, science fiction, war and westerns. One problem with genre films is that they can become stale, clichéridden, and over-imitated. Sub-Genres are identifiable sub-classes of the larger film genre, with their own distinctive subject matter, style, formulas, and iconography. Some are major sub- genres, such as romance films or women's "weeper" or melodramas. Examples of major and minor subgenres abound: aviation films, biographical films, buddy films, caper films, chase films, 'chick' flicks (or gal films), detective/mystery films, disaster films, espionage films, fantasy films, film noir, legal films, martial arts films, medical films, military films, parody films, police films, political films, prison films, religious films, road films, sexual/erotic films, slasher films, sports films, supernatural films, swashbucklers, thrillers/suspense films, and more

Look at each of the genres below and list the sorts of expectations that you would have for each. Think about visual imagery, narrative and character types. 1. Gangster 2. Western 3. Horror 4. Musical 5. Science Fiction 6. Action 7. Drama 8. War 9. Comedy 10. Fantasy

In Film Studies you will watch a number of films and study them in detail. We will look at how meaning is created through film form along with studying the social, cultural, institutional and political contexts.

Most of these can be found on Netflix, Amazon Prime or Sky or sometimes You tube…. • Some Like It Hot (Wilder, 1959) • Blade Runner (Scott, 1982) • La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) • Boyhood (Linklater, 2015) • Pan’s Labyrinth (Del Toro, 2006) • Amy (Kapadia, 2014) • Sunrise (Murnau, 1927),

Some you tube clips to look at: Any of the clips from Crash Course Film Studies https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=crash+course+film

Wasp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VEwcAAJ-LE The Gunfighter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXfltmzRG-g About a girl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV1_TXm0XHs The Wrong Trousers On Netflix High Maintenance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vGtTnYVtyE

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